VanEck has announced that it will donate 10% of all profits from its upcoming futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) to the Ethereum core developers for a period of ten years.
The beneficiary of this initiative will be The Protocol Guild, a group comprising more than 150 developers who are responsible for maintaining Ethereum’s core technology, the asset manager said in a recent post on X (formerly Twitter).
VanEck said that it is only fair for asset managers to give back to the community that builds and supports the crypto protocol.
“Thank you, Ethereum contributors, for nearly a decade of relentless building & ongoing stewardship of this common infrastructure,” the company wrote.
The company expressed its hope that other asset managers and ETF issuers would also consider adopting a similar approach.
This move by VanEck aligns with the growing trend of crypto-native communities supporting the Ethereum network.
Notable contributors include Lido Finance, Uniswap, Arbitrum, Optimism, ENS Domains, MolochDAO, and Nouns DAO.
According to a tracking donations to the Guild’s mainnet, over $12 million has been generated from 4,846 contributions.
These funds are distributed among the Guild’s members based on a weighted ratio determined by their contribution periods.
VanEck unveiled its upcoming Ethereum Strategy ETF (EFUT) on September 28, which will invest in ether futures contracts.
The fund will be actively managed by Greg Krenzer, the head of active trading at VanEck, and is set to be listed on the Chicago Board Options Exchange in the near future.
Investment Firms Rush to Launch Ether Funds
In addition to VanEck, other traditional investment firms are also planning to offer exposure to Ether futures.
Valkyrie, another company in the space, exposure to Ether futures through its existing Bitcoin Strategy ETF, now rebranded as the Valkyrie Bitcoin and Ether Strategy ETF.
Bitwise also submitted an updated prospectus for their equal-weight Bitcoin and Ether futures ETF on September 28, with expectations of going live next week.
Additionally, Kelly ETFs has partnered with Hashdex to deliver futures Ether ETFs in the near future.
Most recently, Invesco and Galaxy Digital Ether ETF, dubbed Invesco Galaxy Ethereum ETF.
Notably, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently delayed its decision on approving a spot Ether product until December.
However, there are speculations that futures-based Ether ETFs are expected to become available as early as next week.
In fact, reports have suggested that the SEC may commence approval of Ether futures ETFs in early October, which has generated significant interest among asset managers eager to participate.
“Hearing the SEC wants to accelerate the launch of Ether futures ETFs (bc they want it off their plate bf shutdown) so they’ve asked the filers to update their docs by Fri pm (no small task to jam into 48hrs, esp for indie issuers), so they can go eff Mon and trade Tue,” ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote in a recent post on X.